THAILAND:THAILAND'S OUSTED prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for corruption as prosecutors in Bangkok push to have him extradited from Britain.
Thaksin, the first Thai prime minister to be convicted of corruption committed while in office, was found to have violated conflict-of-interest rules in helping his wife to buy land from a state agency at a reduced price.
Thaksin, who was forced out in a bloodless coup in 2006, has been accused of a number of corruption offences that he maintains are politically motivated.
The supreme court convicted Thaksin (59) by a majority of five to four, but cleared him of more serious charges of abuse of power to obtain the land.
The case centred on a 5.3 hectares that Thaksin's wife Pojaman bought from a state financial institution for £12.9 million, a third of its estimated value, two years after Thaksin became prime minister in 2001. The panel ruled seven to two to acquit Pojaman of all charges in connection with the land purchase, although she was sentenced to three years in jail in July for tax evasion in a separate case.
Thaksin dismissed the case as part of a plot against him. "I'm a politician and, after I was toppled by the coup, it's normal that they will try every means to justify it. They don't use the rule of the law as evidence, they follow the politics."
Prosecutors said they would file a formal extradition request with the UK to bring Thaksin back to Thailand to serve his sentence and face other charges.
The billionaire, who fled to London after the coup, bought Manchester City football club in May 2007. He returned to Thailand in February, when he was arrested and bailed. When a Thai court gave him permission for him to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, he flew instead to London with his wife.
Thaksin sold Manchester City in September, after 14 months in charge.